Kameo: Elements Of Power Tepid Seat

by Paul on Feb 1st, 2006

Answers: Mark (lead artist), Chris (assistant designer) and Steve (musician)

Q: Kameo has had an interesting life cycle… going through three different consoles before finally coming out. How easy or hard was it to move it from GameCube to Xbox and then Xbox to Xbox 360? Oh and of course the obligatory question that you are probably hugely disinclined to answer: Is there a sequel in the works? Take care peeps!
Priyesh

Mark: We have an internal research and development department at Rare who produce a centralised engine for the whole company. Towards the end of Kameo’s time on GameCube we had been starting to move the game onto this engine, so what this meant for us was that when we moved to Xbox we had the game running in literally weeks, and moving to Xbox 360 from Xbox was even easier. The hardest part was reworking all the art to take advantage of all the extra power. Sequel – no comment!

Q: Well done with the DLC outfits! Loved the PDZ suit… maybe too much. Anyway, did you ever toy with the idea of having minigames included in Kameo? Something like whoever can defeat the most Trolls in the time limit or something, in the Badlands. That would be fun.
Andrew Fyfe

Mark: We did kind of touch on this aspect with the Warrior Trainer caves in the Badlands. It would have been nice to take the idea further, but time just ran out..

Q: Greetings, Kameo Team, and may I say that it’s a delight to still enjoy your game to this day after waiting for it for nearly five excruciating years after rumors of cancellation and so on. My question has to do with Co-Op mode. Why is it that you must beat the main game before being able to enjoy all the levels of Co-Op to its fullest potential? I found it kind of odd that you can play Co-Op levels in Perfect Dark Zero without playing the main levels first, but you couldn’t do so in Kameo.
darkmark8

Mark: With Kameo we attempted to make every Warrior feel different and play differently and a lot of these techniques are learnt outside of the action levels in the adventuring sections of the game. Because the Co-Op mode only allows you to play the action levels, we felt that allowing players to just jump into a Co-Op level with new Warriors and moves and none of the training that precedes it could be a daunting and frustrating experience. So we decided to run with the option that in order to play a level in Co-Op it must have been played in Solo mode first, safe in the knowledge that the player would then have had some experience of playing with the Warriors and their moves.

Chris: The upcoming Kameo Power Pack, though, has experts in mind; if you want to complete the Expert Mode stages as a Co-Operative campaign, play on your own or just bring in a buddy as the fancy takes you, you’re more than welcome to do so. I’d strongly recommend getting at least some basic practice in with all of the Elemental Warriors first, though – we’re not kidding when we say it’s for experts…

Q: I thought the game was originally supposed to be a sort of ‘monster collecting game’, like that one with the poke and the balls and the battles and the yellow rat. I liked the idea of possessing some of a huge number of critters. Then I find out there’s only like four or five ones in the final game. What happened?
Ryan Gioia

Mark: If you look back to early movies of the game on the GameCube, it shows that a core part of what was seen there remained a strong focus of the final game. In the early demos Kameo could acquire monsters and transform into them, giving her new abilites. With Kameo there is a huge level of physical interactions between characters and it’s a level of complexity that takes time to achieve. What became apparent because of this was that we had to scale back our ambitions for the amount of creatures if we were to keep that level of interaction, so that’s basically what we chose to do. We wanted to create something that felt new and unique rather than feeling similar to the game you allude to, which is a totally different experience from Kameo.

Q: Was the long development time disheartening to the team? Is the game considered a commercial success, despite the long development period? What about a creative success? I think PETA might be after you for keeping that walrus chained up in the tower.
Grantley

Mark: Any development time can have its ups and downs, regardless of how long. The Kameo team is a great bunch of people though, very professional, and dealt with the long development time very well. The game has also been received very well so on both counts I would say yes, most definitely it is a success. It’s the trolls that PETA should be chasing; after all they’re the ones that chained the poor guys up! The player on the other hand is charged with setting them free.

Q: Was the game engine complex to create?
Cathy & Adrian Green

Mark: Yes would be the simple answer. All game engines are complex to create, the only things that vary are where those complexities lie. Certain technologies can be shared between all games that we create at Rare, while some problems are unique to a title. One unique complexity in Kameo’s case was that our software engineers had to solve the problem of how to have thousands of characters on the Badlands.

Q: How exactly did focus testing shape the game? Can you give an example of it having a huge impact on the design?
Paul Gasca

Mark: The main use of focus testing for Kameo was to help gauge the playability and difficulty of the levels. We found it to be a valuable resource but it certainly didn’t shape the game.

Chris: Testing were also invaluable when creating Rune Battle – the competitive mode in the upcoming downloadable content – and we made sure to give them early access. Since we’re pitting humans against other humans (a first for Kameo) we needed to be absolutely sure that everything’s balanced and that there aren’t any cheap tricks or frustrating aspects. They may only become apparent on the hundredth (or thousandth) time you play the game and you need devoted people to find them. Fortunately we not only have testers here in Twycross but also access to Microsoft’s own testing infrantry; both departments have lots of experience with multiplayer games and know just how devious some people can be in order to win. I’m sure they’ll be playing on Live when the Power Pack’s released, if anyone cares to test their mettle…

Q: What lies ahead for the future of Kameo? Will we see some new downloadable maps, Warriors or is there a new game in the works? Will all of the stuff that got scrapped come up in the future anytime soon (e.g. the elementals, levels etc.)?
James McKeever

Mark: There is a new download pack coming (the Power Pack) that offers an expert difficulty mode and some fun new Co-Op play modes, plus some more costumes for Kameo and her Warriors. Beyond that download pack I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds. Perhaps if you ever meet the Mystic you could ask her to have a look into her Crystal Eye for you.

Q: I have a question for Mr. Burke. What happened to that beautiful theme in the E3 2004 trailer? And it was also used in the beginning of the E3 2005 trailer. I would be happy if you could post that song in the Downloads section.
Erik Schröder

Steve: This was the very first piece of music I wrote for Kameo when I joined Rare, and was cunningly labelled ‘Kameo 001.wav’ in my music folder. By the time the game came out a few years later, I was up to ‘Kameo 213.wav’! I decided to use it on the End Credits sequence to the game, which seemed like a good enough way to finish off a project with the first thing I wrote for it. This track also popped up on the E3 2004 video. It’s written using synth sounds, no real players on this tuney-tune!

Q: When you fight Thorn at the end, he’s so much smaller than in the beginning! I mean, really–you waltz through the doors to the castle in the beginning of the game and *bang*, there’s Thorn, about as tall as a house, with feet big enough to squash Kameo in one step! Fast forward to the last level, and there he is again, and he’s SHRUNK!!!!! I thought maybe it was a joke, and there would be another battle after that one (BK and BT style, ya know?). I just want to know who you’re trying to kid.
~*BK GiRL*~

Mark: We weren’t trying to kid anyone! We wanted Thorn to come across in that early FMV as a huge, hulking, scary giant of a troll to emphasise that the Trolls are all about pure physical brute force as opposed to the Elves’ use of magic. I guess we got carried away and exaggerated a little too much in this early FMV.

Chris: If thoughts of a cruelly miniaturised Thorn are keeping you awake at night, try this: with Kameo on the warpath, the Trolls didn’t have enough time to complete their airship and comfortably carry Thorn away. Thinking quickly, Kalus used some of her most powerful magic and shrank Thorn down to a point where he could fit inside the ship along with everyone else and they could take off. See? Perfectly logical explanation. *cough*

Q: Tell me, what was the cause of the falling out between Kameo and Meepo? Any chance they might get back together in a future episode? Was Kameo difficult to work with? What were her backstage demands? Better consoles?
Joan Rivers

Mark: Meepo was actually the diva in all of this and his demands became so much that he just had to go. He wanted star billing so that the game was called Meepo: Elements of Power. But you hit the nail on the head, his demand for a PlayStation 3 in his dressing room meant he just had to go. Kameo on the other hand was a joy to work with. I think the rift between them is too great, and chances of a reunion are very slim. Last that was heard about Meepo was that he was recording a solo album.

Q: How big is the Kameo team? Did it include alumni from the Jet Force Gemini team? (Just a hunch.) Are you sick of people claiming this game started on N64? Kameo was (and is) the most polished and well-made game on the 360, the graphics are flawless and the control is utter perfection. I know you can’t tell me specifically what the team’s next game is, but can you give me a hint of what genre it might possibly fall into… anything!
btbighammer

Mark: The Kameo team varied in size during different phases of development, rising up to a maximum of around 35-40 people in the last year of production. It had people who had worked on lots of big Rare titles, most notable amongst them the Donkey Kong Country series, DK64, Banjo Kazooie, Diddy Kong Racing and Star Fox Adventures. I don’t even know where that story about the game beginning on N64 even came from, but it is totally inaccurate as the game was never developed on N64 and began life early on GameCube. Sorry, no clues as to what the team are doing next…

Q: First of all thank you for making my new favourite game. Now the questions. Do you ever wish the game had stayed in its original style, containing more RPG elements like in the GameCube version? Did you have to make many compromises on the game? How far is it from the original concept?
PS. I think you have a slight dust problem in the Enchanted Kingdom’s Throne Room?
Grant Short

Mark: A lot of the core concept of the game didn’t change throughout and the RPG elements you speak of never really existed, it was always a game about action rather than statistics. The biggest compromise we made really was having to downsize the amount of Warriors that featured in the game due the level of complexity that ended up going with each one. But I don’t think it’s far from the original concept at all, the core feature of the game for us was the ability to transform into different creatures in order to acquire different abilities and that is still as evident in the finished product as it was in early movies of the GameCube version. As for the dust, the castle staff are just in the middle of negotiating with a new cleaning contractor due to the inadequacies of the previous company.

Chris: That’s what you get for running around flip-kicking all of your cleaning staff.

Q: Is there a reason the game is short? (Compared to your earlier games.) Why isn’t there a Humba Wumba skin for Kameo? Why do you thank the “Stampede Team”? That game still exists? Or at least, the team? Make a sequel. Before the Next Xbox. Thank you so much!
Valentina

Mark: No reason, we made the game as large as we could in order to make launch, plus I think the level of difficulty probably affects people’s perception of how long the game is because more experienced gamers can play through quite easily first time. The Stampede team provided a few art assets that were used in the game, and that’s all I can say on the matter. Not wanting to commit to anything, but if we make a sequel it would be for Xbox 360.

Q: How do you feel about the way the press embraced Kameo: Elements of Power on the Xbox 360? Do you guys agree with the criticisms of the game at all or do you guys feel that Kameo just wasn’t accepted by game critics around the world (it received great reviews, but people came away a bit dissatisfied)? Also, if you could go back and change the game based on reviews and comments made by fans, how would you change it?
funkymonkey37

Mark: On the whole we’re pleased with the reception Kameo had. There were a few criticisms that seemed to appear consistently and obviously if we were to do a sequel then we’d look into those. There are lots of things you’d change if you could during the making of a game, but unfortunately there are always limits on how far you can go. In the case of Kameo the biggest factor was that we were committed to making launch for Xbox 360, so I think being able to go back wouldn’t really make a great deal of difference as we did all that we could in order to make launch and are very proud of what we achieved.

Q: Why are there 100 Elemental Fruits? You just need 80 to get all the abilities of the Warriors.
MondWolf

Mark: It meant that it was easier for players of any ability to unlock all the Warriors’ great special moves, but then for the people who like to complete everything 100% there are the extra Fruits to find and the Achievement that goes with them.

Q: I’m interested — why was the decision to “miniaturize” the difficulty in Kameo made? If “alienating the masses” is your answer, may I suggest that any further iterations of Kameo carry a greater challenge and longer dungeons — ones worthy of mention in the same breath as Zelda. Now that Viva Piñata is shaping up nicely, it seems that Rare’s got the young demographic under control. Now you can give us dungeon crawlers (or nostalgia-ridden zealots) some love!
Crazy Hands

Mark: We tried to make the game approachable so that players of all abilities could see as much of it as possible. Replaying the levels to get better grades and receive Achievements does require a much higher skill level, so we did try to compensate by including that. If you’re looking for something a little more challenging then there are expert versions of the levels on the way in the next downloadable pack.

Q: After watching the unlockable videos I earned by getting the “A” rankings, I took note of the violet (and violent!) Anti-Pummel Weed squaring off with Kameo in one of them. I also noticed that the skins you find during the course of the game are rather ghastly, compared to the normal good-guy look (sickly Snare, Deep Blue from the Black Lagoon, Rubble’s skulls). Are the skins reminiscent of a time when Kameo: EoP featured the Anti-Warriors? While I’m blathering on about it, what was the role of the Anti-Warriors?
Zenek

Mark: The skins were just a bit of fun and don’t relate to the ‘Anti-Warriors’, as you call them. The ‘Anti-Warriors’ were from a time when we considered that there would be Troll creature trainers who would have their own versions of the Warriors that you’d fight. But we dropped this because we wanted to have a strong theme running through the game that the Elves were all about magic and nature and the Trolls all about brute force and machines.

Q: What was the “official” beer while working on Kameo?
Telka!

Mark: I think if we’d been drinking beer then you wouldn’t be playing Kameo now…

Chris: Now that the game’s complete, though, feel free to send us as much beer as you like and we’ll consider all-comers on a fair and impartial basis. Same applies to cake, cars and houses.

Q: Yes, I have a quick question, why did you change Kameo’s GameCube character model you tards?
Dawn McCaffery

Mark: We wanted to give the character more universal appeal than the GameCube version, particularly as the game was heading into a different market than originally intended. You can still unlock the original outfit in the game though, so you get the best of both worlds.

Chris: Assuming such a HORRIBLY RUDE person as yourself has the skills to unlock the costume, that is. Perhaps we should start selling manners on Marketplace.

Q: I have to say cheers to you guys for putting out the first fully original Rare game in a while to capture the epic feeling of many famous SNES and N64 works of your past. Besides the Battlefield, what were some major new features added to the 360 version from the original Xbox build? What ideas never made it in that you wish could have?
Behonkiss

Mark: The Battlefield was probably the only real major feature addition. Everything else was more geared towards enhancement.

Chris: Enhanced features included the day/night cycle of the various levels and the villagers’ changing routines as the sun went down… Orchestrated suites of music… Lip-synched speech for both the major and minor characters from Kameo herself to the schoolchildren… Leaderboards and Achievements… Co-operative play over split-screen and Xbox Live… The list goes on, and the best part is: we’re still going! With the Kameo Power Pack and all of its new gameplay modes on the way, you’re getting even more 360-fresh features and reasons to return to the game long after launch.

Q: The logo changed to its current form around the time Meepo was unveiled. However, he was subsequently removed, and the logo never changed again. My question is: Why does the logo look like it was carved in dragon hide and come complete with a dragon tail when (to my knowledge, I’m only in the Snow Temple) there’s no creature that this could be modeled after left in the finished game?
NBen

Mark: The logo wasn’t intended to be representative of Meepo or any other character in the game, it was intended to be just a generalised nod to the ability of Kameo to morph into creatures, hence the logo itself is starting to morph.

Q: Everybody loves Kameo. At least, everybody with decent enough sense. Wonderful prettiness abounds. Looking through the deleted scenes and concept arts and such, it seems that a good deal was cut from the plot. A number of characters and events appear to have never seen the light of day, notably Meepo and Cailem. Although the latter never got past concept art, it seems. Was this due to time constraints or more mysterious circumstances?
Zinggy

Mark: Some stuff got cut because of time, some got cut because of design decisions.

Chris: Much as I like the idea of “mysterious circumstances” affecting the game’s development – ghosts stealing all of Meepo’s storyboards, that sort of thing – you can get some idea of what Cailem might have looked like by watching Farron galloping around the Badlands. Cailem didn’t double as Daniel Carrington in his spare time, though. As you can probably garner from the storyboards, Cailem was originally intended to be working with the Trolls, though for markedly different reasons to Kalus. Ultimately he was retired as a villain only to be brought back into service when we needed a friendly face (or mask) on the Badlands. Farron’s origins are a tale for another time; given the impending destruction of her swanky flying castle, Kameo wasn’t particularly inclined to ask him for his life story.

Q: Did Microsoft want the Battlefield… ‘battles’ for the “casual crowd”, or was that something you guys wanted because it was a great diversion? I believe it was said that Kameo is the first Rare game to ever use professional voice actors, do you think it added anything to the game, or was it just to follow Microsoft? I have nothing but love for you and your next project.
Kirk Granthope

Mark: The Battlefield was totally down to us. Originally the levels were connected by magical warps, but moving to the 360 gave us the time to do what we wanted to do, which was to connect the world together physically with a central hub. The whole epic nature of the Battlefield with thousands of characters came about because we didn’t want some dirty, great empty field for the player to traipse across just for the sake of it; we wanted the player to feel like there was an epic battle raging between the Trolls and everyone else. We’re kind of the joint first Rare game to use professional voice acting, as Perfect Dark Zero used it as well and both games were available at launch. Again with the voice acting it was a choice we made, the budget was available so we jumped at the chance and it was well worth it. Likewise the music that we recorded using a professional orchestra and choir just added so much to the overall feel of the game. Thanks for the love and respect.

Q: Hey Kameo team, I was curious as to if anyone over there knows how the Kameo movie will tie into the Kameo “franchise”? Will it be based on a game, launch next to a sequel? Integrated plot? Of course, I’m hoping with the movie comes another Kameo, which is ultimately why I care. Best of luck 🙂
Kevin Bagnowski

Mark: I’m afraid we have very few details on the movie at this point. It would probably be a standalone piece of entertainment based upon the Kameo world and characters.

Q: Who was that shadowy guy coughing at the end of the credits? I thought it was Banjo but my friend Matt told me I was nuts. It’s an honest mistake because I thought it was one of Banjo’s patented “Duh Huhs!”. I wish! By the way, you did an awesome job on Kameo. You left some room for a sequel, I’ll be expecting some cameos in Piñata!!!
Die-hard Banjo Kazooie and Tooie fan

Chris: If you’ve completed the game – and I’m assuming you have if you’re watching the credits – then try returning to the Enchanted Kingdom and see if anybody’s missing. Not wanting to spoil the surprise for those who haven’t yet finished the adventure, it’s a familiar face whose plans have been inadvertently foiled – suffice to say that they’re now out for revenge…

Q: These questions are from my 3-year-old son Kian who is a Kameo addict (and we love it) and has been since the 360 release. We’ve unlocked every unlockable, and he watches all the movies every day. Here’s his questions: I would like to say that Kameo doesn’t have a house. I wish they had more characters – all the other ones are so much fun, and want more. I wish we could be a bird and the lava guy again. I wish Kameo had different (more) clothes for her characters (we’ve downloaded all the Warrior packs). I wish Kameo could be an alligator and then we could have two chompin’ guys!
Eric Dunn

Chris: Kameo lives in the palace at the centre of the Enchanted Kingdom, but with the permanently perfect weather and peaceful atmosphere it’s often nice to sleep outside – one look at the snoozing soldiers proves that.

Mark: Unfortunately if we’d spent time putting in more characters, you probably wouldn’t be playing the game now and still be waiting for us to finish making it. If any sequels were to appear then they would definitely have new characters. Two more sets of outfits are on the way in the next wave of downloadable content – sorry, no alligators, but some of the characters have new looks that you’ll hopefully find to your liking…

Categories: Interviews